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Letters to the Editor
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Prescription charges
Abolition could save money
From Mr J. R. Elliot, MRPharmS
Further to the article by Clare Bellingham (PJ, 12 March, p293), I wonder
if any consideration has been given to the potentially massive savings
to be made by the total abolition of prescription charges.
As far as pharmacies are concerned, no staff time would need to be spent
answering queries about exemptions, helping patients to tick the right
boxes, checking the validity of claims, processing the payments, explaining
why credit cards cannot be accepted, explaining why some items attract
two charges and some items attract no charge, explaining why patient
A can have three months’ supply for one charge, while patient B
must pay monthly, advising that an item is cheaper to buy, advising about
prepayment certificates, completing exemptions on behalf of patients
unable to do so, checking daily for incomplete declarations (fine = £6.40
per item), separating the prescriptions into payment categories (why
are contraceptives not treated the same as exempt items?), ensuring prescriptions
are sorted correctly for dispatch to the Prescription Pricing Authority,
checking that the PPA has deducted the correct number of charges, etc,
etc.
Regarding the wider picture, one can imagine how costly in time and materials
the operation of the exemption scheme must be: the information about
yearly increases must be disseminated to all concerned; exemption certificate
applications must be processed; claims must be checked at the PPA; and
fraudulent claims must be investigated. These operations must require
a whole army of bureaucrats and forests of trees.
In-pharmacy costs, apart from validity checks, are largely at the expense
of the pharmacy owner, but has any attempt been made to quantify to what
extent pharmacy is subsidising the scheme?
As for the costs to the NHS budget, it would be interesting to know whether
the amount spent in collecting prescription charges on a mere 13 per
cent of items dispensed exceeds the amount collected.
John Elliot
Market Rasen,
Lincolnshire |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal